Great engagement at SMC’s annual meeting

How should faith-based organisations relate to a renegotiated social contract? Does the annual meeting need to confirm motions that have already been addressed? These were some burning questions discussed last week when SMC’s network gathered for a day focused on the annual meeting.

The day began with a morning session on the topic of the social contract between civil society and the state, and how the SMC network should navigate the political and societal changes currently taking place, characterized by an increasingly instrumental and controlling view of faith-based organisations. Linnea Lundgren from Marie Cederschiöld University was invited to share her research on the societal discourse surrounding faith-based actors in Sweden from the 1950s onwards. She described changing perspectives over the decades, where they are sometimes seen as a resource and sometimes as a risk. The network had the opportunity to discuss the subject and provide input to SMC’s secretariat and board. Many interesting and thought-provoking points were raised regarding SMC’s future work.

Linnea Lundgren’s research and access to her thesis.

In the afternoon, the actual annual meeting began. The annual report was presented through an interactive exercise. Participants also lined up based on the number of years in SMC, which provided an interesting overview of members’ tenure in the network. The meeting also received the financial statement and audit report.

Changes in the board

Stefan Emilsson was entrusted to lead the board’s work for another year. Karin Lawenius from ACT Church of Sweden was elected as a new regular board member. Outgoing members were Johan Hasselgren and Lotta Sjöström Becker. The nominating committee mentioned that it has been difficult to recruit new board members, and therefore, one position on the board and two positions in the committee remain vacant.

A motion was brought to the meeting, which was the same as the previous year when LM International, together with the Life and Peace Institute, motioned for English to become the working language at SMC. Considering that the previous year’s annual meeting had given the mandate to SMC’s secretariat and board to address the language issue, the board proposed rejecting the motion and putting forth their proposal to allow the ongoing process to continue. LM International then suggested that the annual meeting, to confirm its intentions, should include wording from the decision made by the board the previous year regarding which documents should be available in English. A debate ensued, resulting in an adjournment of the meeting to give the board time to discuss the matter. Ultimately, the meeting agreed to adopt the board’s decision proposal with the addition that the annual meeting supports the board’s decision.